# Did Sherlock Holmes have a son? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 26, 2008, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-sherlock-holmes-have-a-son/450683 "2008-05-26T20:47:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lissla\_Lissar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Lissla\_Lissar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissla_Lissar)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2008, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-sherlock-holmes-have-a-son/450683/1 "2008-05-26T20:47:57Z")
I’m addicted to the Laurie R. King Sherlock Holmes/Mary Russell mysteries, even though I’m not very familiar with the original stories. In _A Monstrous Regiment of Women_, Mary says something like, “If he was your son, wouldn’t you want someone to try to help him?” about a young man with a drug addiction. It’s followed by, _“Of course, he had a son. And someone had tried”_ I’ve done some searching, but I haven’t turned up anything canonical about Holmes having a son. If he did, with whom? How? He famously had no time for romance. Well, aside from possibly Irene Adler. ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2008, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-sherlock-holmes-have-a-son/450683/2 "2008-05-26T20:54:21Z")
I have read them, and no, there is nothing in them about a son. That’s from fanfiction, and the various pastiches/homages that have come down the pike. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2008, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-sherlock-holmes-have-a-son/450683/3 "2008-05-26T21:03:18Z")
It’s not remotely canonical, but some Sherlock Holmes commentators have the theory that Nero Wolfe was the son of Sherlock Holmes and Irene Adler: > **[Nero Wolfe](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nero_Wolfe)** > > Nero Wolfe is a brilliant, obese and eccentric fictional armchair detective created in 1934 by American mystery writer Rex Stout. Wolfe was born in Montenegro and keeps his past murky. He lives in a luxurious brownstone on West 35th Street in New York City, and he is loath to leave his home for business or anything that would keep him from reading his books, tending his orchids, or eating the gourmet meals prepared by his chef, Fritz Brenner. Archie Goodwin, Wolfe's sharp-witted, dapper young con... ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2008, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-sherlock-holmes-have-a-son/450683/4 "2008-05-26T21:08:47Z")
Specifically, that Nero Wolfe is the son of Sherlock and Irene Adler who was seen in the Holmes story _A Scandal In Bohemia,_ one of only four people ever to outsmart Holmes. eta: beaten to the punch eta again : oh, I see you already know about Irene ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2008, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-sherlock-holmes-have-a-son/450683/5 "2008-05-26T21:15:20Z")
Conan Doyle never hinted at such, & he dropped hints galore. No. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2008, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-sherlock-holmes-have-a-son/450683/6 "2008-05-26T23:49:16Z")
C’mon, are you trying to say that what Baring-Gould wrote \*wasn’t \* fanfiction? The man was practically a groupie. 🙂 His Annotated Holmes is much better than the new one than came out recently precisely because he cared about the fanwanking stuff, admittedly. But his “biographies” of Holmes and of Wolfe are drivel. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2008, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-sherlock-holmes-have-a-son/450683/7 "2008-05-27T00:11:44Z")
Yes. Holmes never married, and to an upright Victorian like Doyle, that meant he had no son. There is no mention of a son in any of the Doyle stories, or even a wife. And IIRC, he was never even alone with Irene Adler. ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2008, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-sherlock-holmes-have-a-son/450683/8 "2008-05-27T02:24:25Z")
[QUOTE=Wendell Wagner] It’s not remotely canonical, but some Sherlock Holmes commentators have the theory that Nero Wolfe was the son of Sherlock Holmes and Irene Adler: > **[Nero Wolfe](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nero_Wolfe)** > > Nero Wolfe is a brilliant, obese and eccentric fictional armchair detective created in 1934 by American mystery writer Rex Stout. Wolfe was born in Montenegro and keeps his past murky. He lives in a luxurious brownstone on West 35th Street in New York City, and he is loath to leave his home for business or anything that would keep him from reading his books, tending his orchids, or eating the gourmet meals prepared by his chef, Fritz Brenner. Archie Goodwin, Wolfe's sharp-witted, dapper young con... [/QUOTE] Ah, [Wold-Newton.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wold_Newton_family) What a wonderful concept. By using the Wold-Newton strategy, some have said that Robert Goren, of Law and Order: Criminal Intent is a descendant of Holmes. That’s just one reason why I love the whole construction. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2008, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-sherlock-holmes-have-a-son/450683/9 "2008-05-27T02:48:14Z")
[QUOTE=Leaper] Ah, [Wold-Newton.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wold_Newton_family) What a wonderful concept. [/QUOTE] The other way round. Baring-Gould did it first, and then Farmer started playing with it. ---
**Author:** ![Kythereia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e8c25b/32.png) [@Kythereia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kythereia)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2008, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-sherlock-holmes-have-a-son/450683/10 "2008-05-27T02:53:29Z")
[QUOTE=The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet] “Owe!” He caught up a pen. “Name the sum, and I will pay it.” “No, the debt is not to me. You owe a very humble apology to that noble lad, your son, who has carried himself in this matter as I should be proud to see my own son do, should I ever chance to have one.” [/QUOTE] YMMV, but I don’t even think Sherlock Holmes had any romantic feelings for Irene Adler–more along the lines of respect and admiration for her cleverness. Maybe Holmes was [del]gay for Watson[/del] asexual all along. ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2008, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-sherlock-holmes-have-a-son/450683/11 "2008-05-27T02:55:25Z")
Psssst: [Staff report about the Sherlock Holmes speculation game](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/msherlock.html) ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2008, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-sherlock-holmes-have-a-son/450683/12 "2008-05-27T03:46:11Z")
I think Holmes came off (IMO) as asexual or possibly even somewhat closeted. While he had a deep respect for certain women the notion that he would actually have an emotional relationship with a woman is kind of far fetched within the original Holmesian fictional universe of AC Doyle. ---
**Author:** ![Hometownboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/5e9695/32.png) [@Hometownboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hometownboy)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2008, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-sherlock-holmes-have-a-son/450683/13 "2008-05-27T05:26:21Z")
Ah, but Arthur Conan Doyle had a son bearing the same initials, Adrian Conan Doyle. In “The Exploits of Sherlock Holmes,” there are 12 stories of cases referred to in passing in The Canon. Half of the stories in this volume are listed as by Adrian Conan Doyle and John Dickson Carr (master of the ‘locked room mystery’) and half are credited to Adrian Conan Doyle alone. I submit they are worthy to stand alongside The Canon. ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2008, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-sherlock-holmes-have-a-son/450683/14 "2008-05-27T13:33:44Z")
I have nothing to add to the Holmes-has-a-son discussion except that I, too, just love-love-love the Mary Russell novels. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2008, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-sherlock-holmes-have-a-son/450683/15 "2008-05-27T18:00:27Z")
No son (or daughter) canonically, but lots of fanfic/pastiches in which Holmes has offspring, with Irene Adler or others. Capt. Spock, in _Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country_, refers to Holmes (or perhaps it was Conan Doyle) as an ancestor in quoting the axiom, “When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.” I really like the June Thomson pastiches, which are every bit as good as the best of Conan Doyle. Start with _The Secret Files of Sherlock Holmes_. ---
**Author:** ![Isaac\_alsop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/50afbb/32.png) [@Isaac\_alsop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isaac_alsop)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2016, 10:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-sherlock-holmes-have-a-son/450683/16 "2016-04-07T10:10:47Z")
Yeah it’s me ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2016, 10:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-sherlock-holmes-have-a-son/450683/17 "2016-04-07T10:54:07Z")
Glad we got _that_ cleared up, after eight years. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2016, 10:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-sherlock-holmes-have-a-son/450683/18 "2016-04-07T10:55:37Z")
Sherlock Holmes’ son is clearly Tommy Westphall. 🙂 In Season 3 of \*Elementary \*one of Holmes’ “Irregulars” asks him to be a sperm donor. Holmes declines on the basis that his “remarkable” abilities make him extremely miserable and he didn’t want to inflict a life like that on anyone else. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2016, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-sherlock-holmes-have-a-son/450683/19 "2016-04-07T12:48:19Z")
In the film with Roger Moore and Patrick MacNee as Holmes and Watson, respectively, it’s implied that Holmes had a child out of wedlock, “Scott” (one of Holmes’s given names). > **[Sherlock Holmes in New York (TV Movie 1976) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075208/)** > > Sherlock Holmes in New York: Directed by Boris Sagal. With Roger Moore, John Huston, Patrick Macnee, Charlotte Rampling. In this mystery, Sherlock Holmes pursues his archenemy Professor James Moriarty to New York City, in which the villainous... ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2016, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-sherlock-holmes-have-a-son/450683/20 "2016-04-07T16:26:12Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > In the film with Roger Moore and Patrick MacNee as Holmes and Watson, respectively, it’s implied that Holmes had a child out of wedlock, “Scott” (one of Holmes’s given names). > > [Sherlock Holmes in New York (TV Movie 1976) - IMDb](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075208/) Ugh. I had to look that up, only to find that giving his name as William Sherlock Scott Holmes is a construct of the Wold-Newton mythos. I reject thee. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-sherlock-holmes-have-a-son/450683.md?page=2)